Feature Article

OpenMarket and Ecrio Offer Application-to-Person Messaging for IoT

In a recent release, OpenMarket, a mobile messaging company, and Ecrio, a supplier of Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) that is certified for IMS and RCS Networks, together announced that they have delivered the first U.S. operator-based Rich Communication Services (RCS) Application-to-Person (A2P) proof of concept demonstration of Internet of Things (IoT) use cases running on T-Mobile's network.

The pair is calling RCS the next evolution of SMS with its support of message delivery, read receipts, video, pictures, and GIF sharing. OpenMarket and Ecrio are working to showcase how brands will be able to leverage RCS A2P messaging on T-Mobile's network to provide a better mobile messaging experience for their customers. T-Mobile has long been a leader in RCS, and currently has the largest active base of RCS subscribers in the U.S.

“We are thrilled to be working with Ecrio and T-Mobile to bring RCS A2P messaging to both businesses and consumers,” said Jay Emmet, General Manager, OpenMarket. “Brands are clearly responding to RCS and we are excited to help them deliver higher-value interactions and superior customer experiences.”

IoT business providers are seeking to deliver a simpler and better user experience for mobile consumers. Since over 90 percent of SMS messages are read within three minutes of opening, text messaging has been shown to be a preferred communications channel by consumers. IoT use cases for security, lighting and heating control, and other IoT connected home devices, will be able to use RCS messaging to send high resolution pictures, animated gifs or videos to consumers so they can quickly visualize data and view what is happening – all from their native mobile messaging inbox.

“We are very pleased to have certified our RCS compliant CPaaS with T-Mobile, to enable the feature-rich RCS A2P messaging without any change in the operator infrastructure,” said Michel Gannage, Founder and CEO of Ecrio. “With the OpenMarket partnership, businesses and brands can now serve consumers via next generation mobile messaging, creating a superior experience and increasing customer engagement and loyalty.”